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New Music: The Lightning Year

Crowdsurf across the end of the world with psych rock quintet The Lightning Year. They are following their first single Endless Memory with The Needle, a track that has our heads spinning like a record. What, we have been asking, is behind this wickedness?

The band met via romance and music in the wild grid of London. A passion for sweet hooks brought them together, along with an easy way with the beasts and demons of modern life. They took their band name from the lyric, “I wish you were around to hear / The music of the lightning year,” in their tune The Beauty in Song. Shrugging off comparisons with The War on Drugs, Glass Animals and Tame Impala, The Lightning Year says their creative process is a quick succession of highs and lows, resulting in a sonic thrill that catches the push and pull of the jam. In The Needle, dreamy vocal harmonies levitate over thick guitar reverb and a whomping beat, as the bells of peace banish the trumpets of war, and the Citizens of the Universe walk out to greet us on the approach to Groove City.

The single is out on SuperNatural Recordings, a new London label launched by Angus Blair, the twenty year industry veteran who got Bat for Lashes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jungle signed. The band has worked with Grammy-nominated producer Catherine Marks, and Phil Taggart of Radio 1 is a supporter. Spotify’s New Music Friday featured The Lightning Year, UTA recently added them to its global roster of talent, and they just headlined a gig at London’s Waiting Room. In the coming months they are playing Festival No.6 and The Great Escape while working on their debut album. Look out for an EP that is set to drop this summer.